The IPL, Backgammon and Revels

I am on the verge of boredom, I’m not used to not doing anything for an extended period of time and three days now qualifies as an extended period of time.

However in an effort to stave off death by boredom I have discovered to my joy that the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League 20/20 is being shown on Setanta Sports. I find that people either love or hate cricket. Having played a lot of cricket right up until the age of nineteen, after which my knees made sure i no longer played, I am firmly in the ‘love’ category. 20/20 cricket had been a revolution to the game, a quick, fast paced, thrilling and edgy game that has proven to be ideal to get people interested in the sport once more. Well being an existing Setanta Sports subscriber, I’ve been able to enjoy the first few games and am actually watching one right now. I’m not so sure about how the IPL have ‘poached’ players from different countries to boost the series, but I guess it is a sad sign of how the game must change and adapt to keep players and fans interested. At heart I’m a still a traditionalist who likes five day long test matches above anything else.

I have also taken the opportunity to hone my backgammon skills at Backgammon Masters. For the uninitiated, this is an online gambling site that allows you to play amongst others, backgammon, poker and blackjack for both real money and play money. It is fair to say that backgammon is one of those games that I really enjoy playing. It is both a game of skill and chance and the more I play it, the more I am able to hone my game and develop strategies for different situations. On the play money stakes, I have now increased my starting stake by six times since I started. I had a quick dabble with real money and then decided that it was a recipe for recklessly losing money quicker than I could add funds through their slick interface. For some reason, real money seems to lose its value when represented as a figure on a gambling site, so I will not be trying that again.

I did manage a gentle and slow walk to the shop this morning, I needed some Sundays papers and a bag of Revels. Ironically, the Sunday papers remain unread, whereas the large bag of Revels has already been consumed. Hindsight is a wonderful thing - I should have bought two packs.